Metal Men
by jack2724
Summary: Magneto escapes and the avengers have to help track him down. Of course Tony isn't just Tony Stark, he was someone before he became that. Before, he was a son who disagreed with his father...
1. Chapter 1

**Alright so this was one hell of a thing! It was based off a challenge for birthday. This challenge was given to me by ** .Barton** and I don't think its half bad! There may be a second chapter, just the conversation that's suggested at the end by Prof. Xavier, but that'll only happen if someone asks for it. Hope you like it, review if you'd like **

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY ** .Barton

I mean really, I should have seen this coming. Well I guess maybe I should've seen at least _half _of all this coming. Like the Charles thing, and the Fury and the team being surprised and royally pissed (though each member for different reasons) and above all I _knew _this was the only outcome when the whole battle in New York with Magneto and the mutants started only about eighteen months after the whole stupid Loki thing!)… And yet here I am, thinking how dumb as hell I was being for hoping none of this would happen. You know people consider me the innovator of the future- a genius! Hell even I consider myself a genius, but right not- _god _I can be dense and dumb!

OK, ranting aside, first lets clear a few things up shall we? First off, let me introduce myself- Antonio. Last name isn't really important- I've had a couple: Schmidt, Eisenhardt, most recently though I call myself Stark. Yes I own Stark Industries and Stark International; no I have no relation to Howard and Maria Stark- I clarifying this because a lot of people get confused and flustered about this. Second thing, I am Iron Man- yes everyone knows that the owner of SI (me) is Iron Man. The whole Iron Man thing came about after a couple really bad months I spent in Afghanistan (side note- Middle East desert is not recommended for a vacation destination- just trust me on that!). Originally when I took over SI we made weapons (best in the business- thank you very much) but after Afghanistan, well I changed that. I shut down all weapons manufacturing and made my suit; now SI is the leading company in bio-medical engineering, technology, GMO farming, and basically my company is involved in everything related to technology that does not kill indiscriminately. Alright, let's see what else I need to say… Um right, I am an enigma (according to the press and to most governments –SHILED) because apparently there is no information about me in any computer system dating back prior to… about fifteen, twenty years ago? I'd tell them that's ridiculous, but well, I know there's nothing on me because I made sure there wasn't. I came on the radar when I went to MIT at sixteen (yep huge engineering nerd, love technology and metal and all!) Had a couple inventions and patens while doing my undergrad and graduate work, then used the money to buy up SI stock, which leads me to now owning it! Well that covers about everything about my superhero, good guy life, I think…

Alright, so now that that is all covered, I'm thinking I ready to start at the beginning, tell this whole story of my stupidity from the beginning, so that I can figure out where I _really _screwed up. I mean, it'd be nice to know seeing as I'm about to die.

Oh I forgot to mention that- _Duh! See, I'm an idiot! _I currently have Magneto standing over me, his boot on my chest, I'm not wearing my suit, and he's directing the metal shrapnel closer into my heart.

Ok, yep having trouble breathing, let's start this whole thinking back on everything that has led up to this situation already!

-/-/-

After everything that Charles and Erik had been through, they became enemies. Charles created the Xavior School and became Professor X, who cared for and taught mutants. Erik, became Magneto, the mutant revolution terrorist as it were. For a long time after they went their separate ways, they did not speak or hear a word about each other; and then one day years after they last spoke to each other as friends, they found each other again. Only three people in the entire living world knows how Charles came to be sitting quietly in a small farm house sipping tea with Erik and a young boy while outside the Xmen fought some of Magneto's mutants; and those three people were the three sitting in there.

"Tell me Charles, why you refuse? We are superior, we should be in control of this chaotic world. Look at what humans are doing to this planet- to us! Those that know of us want us dead! I will not stand by and wait for my death." Magneto said aggressively as he sat at the table with his helmet on, shielding his thoughts from Charles. But Charles was not paying attention to Erik, he was more focused on the young boy sitting on the floor manipulating and playing with some metal silverware. He watched as the boy with dark hair bent the metal to his will in the air. Unable to resist Charles attempted to see into the boy's mind; to his utter surprise the boy's mind was chaos! The boy, no older than seven perhaps, had at least a dozen trains of thought going on at the same time. It was too much and Charles was unable to focus on any specific thought long enough to get a firm grasp on the child's mind.

As Charles attempted to grasp at one of the boy's thoughts, the boy went still and all the silverware he was playing with clattered to the floor. The boy looked up at Charles and stood to walk over and stand next to Magneto. Charles gave up trying to get a read on the boy and gave a slightly apologetic smile.

Erik had gone quiet and watched this exchange amused by the boy and annoyed at Charles' attempt. The boy stood next to Magneto and said in a similar accent as Erik had "Vater, your friend is like us, but why was he trying to hear my thoughts? I do not like that." The boy said this strongly yet politely, showing Charles respect (respect which Charles didn't think he deserved after such an invasion of personal privacy).

Erik smiled at the boy, "He is a mutant like us, but he cannot manipulate magnetism like us, Magnon."

"I know, but why did he try, did I do something to warren such a rude action to be taken against me? I am sorry if I did, Vater. I am sorry sir." The boy indicated Charles in his apology.

"I should be sorry child, not you; it was an invasion of your privacy I should not have indulged in. I am sorry. My name is Prof. Charles Xavior, and who might you be?" Charles was intrigued by this boy who, by shear brainpower, had blocked Charles out of his mind.

The boy looked at Magneto, and Magneto responded for the boy, "He is Magnon; he has a similar mutation as me. You were unable to read his thoughts Charles? That's very interesting, but not very surprising; Magnon is a very smart boy."

The boy, Magnon, beamed at Magneto's compliment. "Now, Charles, as I was saying." Magneto had dismissed any further conversation about the boy, but Charles was not done with him yet.

""Where did you find him? If he is this smart Erik you must give him a proper education, he could do so much for this world! How old is he? You cannot think this life you live is good for this boy. Let me take him and teach him at my school."

"I never find him, he finds me. Magnon is five years old and no he will not be going with you. He has potential which I will not let you destroy with your ridiculous education and ideology."

Before the conversation could go any farther, all three heard large explosions and Xmen rushing into the house. Magneto stood up, the boy came to his side immediately; before Charles or anyone could do anything to stop them, Magneto and the boy flew out of the house, escaping capture.

-/-/-

Over the years, Charles and Magneto would run into each other multiple times, each fighting on opposite sides. And every time Charles saw Magneto, he would see the boy Magnon by his side; each time Magnon's mutant powers would be stronger and Charles had a more difficult time at even seeing his thoughts. By the sixth or seventh run-in, Charles could not even trace where Magnon was, like Magneto's helmet, Magnon was immune to any telepathic attack, Charles could not even locate where Magnon was until Magnon was standing in front of him.

On few occasions, Charles even had the opportunity to speak Magnon. Magnon was much more than just smart; he was a genius (in Charles opinion) and wise beyond his years. More than once Magnon questioned Charles on his beliefs and opinions about mutants and humanity, though never once offer his own thoughts. Charles asked Magnon each time to visit the Xavier School and each time Magnon replied, _"my place is with Vater."_ Charles eventually had to accept this decision.

Then one day years after Charles had first met Magnon at Magneto's side, the boy disappeared completely. Magneto made no mention of him; it was like the boy never existed.

Years and years after all this happened, after Magneto was finally captured and held in a plastic cell, Charles finally asked Erik what happened to the boy as they played chess.

Erik looked at Charles for a long moment and with a small twitch of his lip, "He is his own man, I suspect he moved on with his life."

"Erik, I know you cared for the boy. What happened to Magnon?"

"I hear he likes to work with his hands now-a-days. Can't say for certain though, I have not seen him since he graduated."

"Graduated?"

"Charles, you yourself said he was intelligent, of course a boy that smart would get an education." Erik smiled a real smile which Charles had not seen in decades. "Checkmate Charles."

So preoccupied thinking about Magnon and if perhaps he could find him, Charles lost track of their match and just lost to Erik. Charles smiled, accepting his defeat. A guard came to escort Charles out, at the door, Erik calls to him, "You won't be able to track him Charles."

Charles stops for a moment, "What would make you say such a thing?"

"Because I know you Charles and I know Magnon. He won't be found, unless he wants to be found; and trust me when I say you wouldn't know him even if he walked up to you and introduced himself. Leave the boy to his own life."

-/-/-

I never liked reporters asking me about my childhood and growing up. It's not that I had a bad childhood, I actually enjoyed it, never knew my mother but I had my dad and his friends that made me a family. My dad and I were a lot alike, I got my brains and charm from him; he taught me almost everything I know, everything else I taught myself. I don't like talking about him because we had a rather vicious falling out before I went to MIT. We were both passionate in our beliefs, but they were opposing and well, sometimes the differences are too big to get over.

Since I became Tony Stark, I've only done one interview where I answered any questions regarding my personal life; it was for an article in Time Magazine about a year after I became Iron Man. I liked the reporter and gave him a bone, I told him _"I'll make one statement, that's more than anyone else has ever gotten. Either you can be content with it or you can get nothing. I was once really close to my dad, he was a strong man to look up to, he told me stories about Captain America liberating concentration camps, and he taught me so much- he loved physics and flying, I think that's where I get those loves from. We have differences in opinions about humanity and life choices. I haven't heard from him in years and I don't think either of us want to ever see each other again anytime soon. I know he is proud of me, though, and that I'm working with my hands, like I've always wanted to. Ok, that's it. That's my only comment on the matter. We done?"_

Yeah, it was basically after that interview when SHIELD became _really_ interested in me and not just Iron Man, like they originally were. Pepper threw a fit after the article came out because her email exploded with people wanting to interview me about my supposed "highly controvercial" opinions about humanity and life choices. That day I spent two hours being yelled at by Pepper and another four hours watching SHIELD's system run searches for me- that part was funny as hell!

I mean, come on, I've been working with the Avengers for over a year now. We fought and beat Loki in New York. I've come to trust the ragtag team with my life and they've come to do the same with me.

We don't need each other's life stories to know that we can got each other's' backs.

-/-/-

It was late one night as we were watching some really terrible family movie that we all somehow ended up in this deep conversation about all our pasts. Natasha shared a bit about the Red Room. Barton told a funny story about him getting stuck in a tree once when he was in the circus. Thor spoke of his many games and tricks played with Loki. Steve told us about being sick growing up and his friend Bucky always making him smile. Even Bruce mentioned how his mother used to make the best gingerbread cookies at Christmas. Then like a weird group sharing thing, they all turned to me with expecting looks on their faces.

I got up, ignoring all of them, and went to the bar to pour a glass of scotch, hoping they will move on since the credits were done running on the screen. Apparently they weren't going to until I _shared. _

Steve was the first to say something, "What about you Tony? Anything that can beat gingerbread?" He said trying to be light but not really succeeding.

"Never liked the taste of gingerbread." I said breezily.

"Come on, Stark- share! It's story time!" Barton snickered.

I got the feeling they wouldn't _ever _let this go. So I tried to think of something, anything that wasn't awkward or difficult to tell…

"Alright, alright, story time children, gather 'round and listen carefully." I chuckled and Steve practically beamed with happiness that I had agreed to share, Bruce gave me a slight nod in encouragement.

"When I was young, we moved around a lot; always met new people. Anyway my dad had one friend that we would meet up with every once in a while, I called him Chuck. Other than dad, Chuck was the only one who I was able to have an intelligent conversation with; anyway one time when I was about eleven, I think we were in Belgium maybe? Dad told me that Chuck might be coming by so I figured what the hell, let's put the kettle on and have a nice cup while we caught up. Anyway when Chuck walks in, he looks at me with this deer in the headlights look. He spends the next ten minutes as we drink the tea completely confused about how I knew he'd be coming. Well we chatted for a while until it was time for Chuck to leave. I said good-bye and dad showed him to the door. So, um the end?" I stood at the bar, watching as everyone's faces went from confused to disappointed.

Barton was the first to recover his voice, "No wonder you build stuff, you suck at story telling! That was honestly the worst story I've ever heard!"

Steve looked the most disappointed, "Was that even a true story Tony?"

"Most of it; hey, you guys wanted a sweet childhood story- that's what you got. Get over it." I grumbled as I took a sip of the scotch relishing its burn down my throat.

"Never said it had to be happy, we were just sharing stuff that was important to us when we were young." Bruce said as he came up to stand next to me at the bar.

'_It was important to me.' _I thought bitterly, "My chats with Chuck, though few and far between helped to shape my opinions and beliefs so, deal with it folks. Now I got some work in the lab to finish up." I left the movie room right then.

"Ok, is it just me or was that a crappier story then _any _of Nat's Red Room stories?" Barton voiced.

Less than five minutes after I got down to the lab, Steve came in and stormed straight at me. "Is this all a joke to you? I mean, you do realize you're the only one on this team that has ever had a family before us! To everyone up there, that was really important; sharing some stuff that we all held close to the heart and then you go and make up some stupid story. It's insulting and it hurt everyone on this team! Do you even care?"

In all honesty, I should not have answered that, I should've said nothing, but I was never good at keeping my mouth shut, got me in a lot of trouble in the past with some of the freaks that worked with dad. "Is there a difference between lions and humans?"

The redirect, threw Steve for a loop only for a second, "What!? Jesus, just answer my damn question- is this a joke to you!? Cause it's not to us."

"I am; I asked Chuck this all the time all the time when I was young. I mean sure the fur and teeth and cat stuff are huge differences, but I mean deep down- in the bones, are they any different?"

Steve just continued to glare at me. "My father firmly believed that yes they're different, Chuck believed that it didn't matter because we all shared the same space. You want to know if this is a joke to me? No, it's not, I just shared a very important aspect of my childhood, but none of you decided to see it."

"Then do you mind, explaining it- _clearly?" _Steve hissed through gritted teeth.

"Before MIT I wasn't allowed to question certain things; I was expected to acknowledge certain things as absolute fact, even when I didn't think they were. Chuck was the only one that ever offered me the chance to question things that I was otherwise _not _allowed to ever question."

Steve looked embarrassed now; "Oh" was all he said. I turned back to my work expecting him to leave, but he didn't, instead he spoke softly, "I'm sorry. We didn't realize that." I grunted in acknowledgment, again hoping he'd leave- no such luck.

"What weren't you allowed to question? Was your father the one who held you back?"

"Beliefs, he was certain his were right."

"Did you ever come around to see his point of view, I mean were you guys ever able to talk it out?"

"You read the one Time article where I spoke about him."

"I did." Steve said in a questioning tone. "You could still try to reconcile, he's your father and you said he loved you."

I finally gave up on getting any work done and turned to look at Steve, I sighed knowing he'd never get it "As far as either of us are concerned, yes we were father and son, yes if he was about to be killed- even now I'd try to save him, but no we'll never reconcile or be civil with each other."

"Why?"

"Because I see no difference between lions and men."

"Huh?"

"You wouldn't understand, now can you leave, I'm not getting any work done with you pestering me."

Steve gave a short nob and left in a state of dazed confusion. Steve walked out of the lab muttering "lions and men? There's a huge difference between the two."

The team got over that little tryst in less than a week, but they never really spoke about it again and every time anything about anyone's past is now brought up, no one looks to me.

-/-/-

Bruce and I were working in our favorite lab one afternoon; me on my suits, him on some chemistry stuff, when we both got stuck in what we were doing. We each tried to help the other out, looking over the mechanics and equations we were working with, but no such luck; so instead we decided to take a break. As I began to shut down my holograms, I saw Bruce tapping his foot.

"In a hurry or got a question, Big Guy?"

Bruce looked at me, he blushed embarrassed, "I was thinking. You offered once to show me your original suit."

"I did."

"Well, neither of us can work on anything right now…"

"Bruce, you can ask to see the Mark I, I won't bite your head off- promise." I laughed at his hesitance.

He gave a small smile and shrug, "Come on Green, it's in the Lab next door."

I showed him the Mark I and we spent the next three hours- him studying each piece of metal and machine while I answered any questions he had about the suit.

As he came to study the right knee joint when he made a strange noise. "Hmm? What'd you say?"

"You said all the hardware is original, nothing has been touched or altered?"

"A-duh." I shook my head childishly.

"That can't be right then." I simply raised an eyebrow.

"This joint- the hydraulics, the metal soldering, even the wiring- everything doesn't work. This joint can't bend; I don't think it ever could. You've had to have altered this Tony, it would've never moved."

'_well shit. He was right.' _I thought as I said, "Huh, you're right, it doesn't move." Bruce just stared at me over his glasses. "Well the joint moved fine, when I was using the suit. And now this is so outdated, don't think it matters anymore." My smile was slightly off but after a few seconds Bruce seemed to just accept that reasoning and moved on with his study of the suit.

As Bruce continued to study the suit, I let my mind wander, and then BANG- it hit me- how to fix my suit and Bruce's chemistry equations. Without wasting another second I rushed back into my lab. Bruce didn't follow; he was still too interested in my first suit.

I was working for barely ten minutes when the Avenger's alarm started blaring throughout the Tower. I stopped working with my suit and got JARVIS to help me assemble it around me. I rushed up to the communal floor and found I was the last to arrive.

Without saying a word everyone rushed to the Quinjet (designed and built that- thank you very much) while Thor and I took to the sky by ourselves.

Over the comm, "Where do we stand?" Romanov questioned.

Coulson responded with the briefing, "There is a small group of mutants attacking near Central Park. SHIELD has set up a three block perimeter, but we have not been able to figure out why their attacking. There doesn't seem to be any real reasoning behind it."

Maria Hill cut in, "They are just causing havoc as far as any of our agents have been able to say."

"Get in and settle this." Coulson concluded.

"Why are we dealing with the freaks? Aren't they Xavier's boys' problem?" Barton chimes in.

There's silence on the other end for a moment before Fury comes on comm, "the Xmen are dealing with an attempted prison break at a facility that holds criminally charged mutants. So get to Central Park already and stop these dumbasses!"

With that said the comms went silent until we reached Central Park.

"Looks like there's six of them. Hill was right, they're not really doing much, just smashing shit?" I said as I flew reconnaissance.

"What do they look like, Iron Man?" Cap said over the comm as the Quinjet landed at the South end of the Park.

"Um, we got a guy with wings, we got a huge ugly brute, and um I think someone that controls wind or something? Oh and there's a creepy skeleton throwing his bones and a guy with canons for arms, what's up with that? Woah! Oh and there's a guy that teleports? What the hell!?" I screeched as a huge gust of wind forced me off my recon course.

"Iron Man?" Cap said, "Come in Iron Man. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm coming back to you guys." I flew back to everyone at the Quinjet. Captain America made a plan of attack and we each went our separate ways, except Bruce who stayed back as backup.

The battle went rather disastrously, those mutants had no restraint. Thor fought the windy guy, Cap took on big ugly brute, while Black Widow and Hawkeye took on the teleporting guy, the skeleton, and the guy with the cannon arms. And I was stuck with the winged bird-guy thing? At first we were standing our ground pretty well, but then teleporting guy got the jump on Black Widow and Cap took a bad blow to the gut. I made the decision to have the Hulk come and play, but before Bruce could respond, someone cut over the comms, "Xmen to Avengers, this is Cyclops, we are en-route to assist. Are we clear to land for landing?"

"What the…?" Hawkeye said as he shot at the guy with canon arms. Cap answered, "Captain America to Xmen, welcome to the party."

Less than a minute later a group of four slightly disheveled guys and Charles Xavier came into the Park wearing all matching black spandex. They jumped right into the battle; surprisingly enough both teams seemed to work well together. Oddly enough, almost immediately after the Xmen made an appearance, my entire team seemed to stiffen for a second, "Did I miss something guys?"

"You didn't here that!? What the hell was that!?" Barton screech in a disturbed tone.

"Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have asked bird-brain." I replied sarcastically.

I saw Xavier wheel himself over to Bruce and next thing I heard, "My apologies, I did not think about how you may react to myself and my ability." Xavier went on giving updates as both Xmen and Avengers fought the mutants. After only a few more minutes of battling the mutants we were fighting, made a hasty and tactical retreat leave all of us confused and out of breath.

I flew back to the Quinjet as everyone else made their way back there as well. "Ok what was that?" I said as I landed next to Bruce and my face-plate retracted.

"Weird. It was weird." Clint said as he came up behind us, followed by Natasha and Steve. Thor and the rest of the Xmen followed closely behind.

"Professor, what was that, they accomplished nothing?" An Xman wearing red goggle thing-ies said as he came up to stand next to Xavier.

"I am not certain Cyclops; that was very strange indeed." Xavier replied pressing his fingers to his temple.

Steve approached them and extended his hand in greeting, "Captain America; thanks for the back-up. Forgive my directness, but we were under the impression the Xmen were preoccupied with a prison escape…" Steve trailed off waiting expectantly for the Xmen to explain themselves.

The big fury blue guy seemed ready to answer when Xavier interrupted, "Perhaps we could have this discussion somewhere better suited?" Indicating a public street in New York City wasn't the place to discuss mutant affairs. Steve conceded to this point and the next thing I knew the Xmen were being invited to _my_ Tower to chat!

-/-/-

Instead of landing on my platform to disassemble my suit, I flew it down to my lab and had Dum-E and Butterfingers help me take it off, hoping not to cause any more damage to it.

The door to my lab opened as I placed the helmet of the table with the rest of the suit. "Hey, everyone is upstairs."

"Yeah, I'm coming up now Brucie." I looked up to see Bruce making his way over to the table and eyeing my suit. I simply raised an eyebrow. "You were able to solve you suit problem rather quickly."

For a moment I was confused at what he was referring to, "hmm?" (oh yeah, couldn't get the flight stabilizers to configure properly) "Oh, yep! I did."

"How?"

"What?"

"What was the brilliant quick fix?"

"Oh, um placemats." I tried to step around him but he blocked my way.

"Placemats?" He raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"What is this, twenty questions? Yes, placemats. As in when kids get those coloring placemats at restaurants and there's usually a maze on them. If you can't solve the maze from 'start' then you go to the 'end' and work backwards."

"So, you figured out what the end result you wanted and then worked backwards to figure out how the wiring had to be placed?"

"Suit worked beautifully didn't it?"

Bruce nodded his head slowly in agreement, "So," I pointed towards the door, "Shall we?" We left the lab in silence and I could tell something was bothering Bruce, though he chose not to mention whatever it was.

-/-/-

"It's really awesome to meet the _actual _Captain America."

"You too, Iceman. Actually, it's a pleasure to finally meet the Xmen team." Steve said shaking Iceman's hand politely as Bruce and I walked out of the elevator into the main lounge area where the Avengers, the Xmen, Fury, Coulson, and Hill were stand around exchanging pleasantries.

"Dr. Banner," Xavier greeted Bruce with a nod then looked with a critical eye at me (creeped me out slightly-telepath and all- I didn't exactly feel comfortable being around a guy that could theoretically read my mind). "And this must be Mr. Stark."

I walked over to him and put on my most charming press smile (the one that Pepper said every female swoon, half the men hate me, and everyone believe my bullshit) and introduced myself properly, "That's what it says on my license; Antonio Stark, Iron man if you will." And one more dazzling smile to finish.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Stark. I must say I am intrigued by you."

"Oh, well most people are; either because of Iron Man, or SI, or my dazzling good looks and charm." I smiled again- all pearly white teeth this time.

"Yes, I was just apologizing to the other Avengers and those in SHIELD about when we first arrived at Central Park and I spoke to them telepathically. I on occasion forget how uncomfortable that can be for the first time."

'_That must've felt weird, but I didn't hear anything.' _I thought as I said aloud, "that's quite alright, you didn't bother me." And another charming grin; this conversation was getting awkward; everyone else had gone quiet to listen to our exchange.

That brought a slightly confused smile to Xavier's face, "Yes, I noticed that; I found it difficult to communicate with you telepathically."

At this, Fury decided to speak up, "What do you mean you found it difficult to get into Stark's head?"

Xavier looked over to Fury, "Well I have never met anyone capable of completely shielding their mind from my abilities. For most, I can fully access their mind, for some with great difficulty I can penetrate their conscious to at least get my own words in their mind- like a telephone if you will. But with Mr. Stark, I could not even access his thought process; his mind was completely closed off from me, so when I attempted to communicate with all the Avengers, Mr. Stark felt and heard nothing. Am I correct?" Xavier looked at me.

"Not a peep." I was uncomfortable talking about this.

"Hmm that is most interesting."

"Wait so you can hear all our thoughts, but not Stark's?" Clint questioned.

"Yes I can, but I respect your privacy. At this moment I can feel everyone in this room's minds and thoughts, except when I focus near you, Mr. Stark. When I focus near you, I see a jumbled mess- essentially to me it is all white noise blocking me out."

"Huh." That was all I said, I politely stepped back and made way over to the bar to pour myself a glass of anything. I could tell everyone in the room was freaked out by this a little bit- including myself (though my reasons were probably _way_ different then everyone else's).

After a few awkward and tense minutes, everyone seemed to want to move past my weird not telepath capable brain and onto the reasoning behind the attack in Central Park earlier.

Theories were suggested as Hill and Coulson debriefed everyone right here. I stayed quiet and sat at the bar. Xavier and his Xmen gave us more information on the mutants that attacked who apparently called themselves the Dark Riders (creative, but still stupid as all hell). They included: HardDrive, Barrage, Foxbat, Spyne, Deadbolt, and Hurricane (even their names were weird- like seriously can no mutant get a good name!?). After the battle debrief was over, I finally felt it was necessary for me to ask what everyone else seemed to ignore, "We were sent out because you guys were busy with a prison break, and then you guys show up out of the blue. What happened that made you able to get to Central Park?"

And again everyone looked at me (honestly I was getting tired of the 'Everyone Stare at Antonio Time' but I kept my mouth shut… mostly). "And seriously, why the hell does everyone keep looking at me like I'm this weird thing they forget is there until I say something no one thought of!? God do you realize how creepy you all look? Natasha, you look more surprised by this then the giant blue furry guy sitting on my loveseat!" I pointed at Hank McCoy, "No offense Fur Ball." I smiled cheekily at him while stirring my drink (gave my hands something to do).

Cyclops was the first to respond (not react- the first to react was Natasha with her Death Glare at me) he said looking surprised, "Some of Magneto's cronies tried to bust him out of prison earlier."

"Did they succeed?" Hill asked.

"Yes." Angle said shaking his head, sounding angry at himself.

"WHO IS THIS MAGNETO?" Thor boomed in question.

"Super bad guy." Iceman replied. I finished my drink in one huge gulp and poured a second.

"Erik, was able to get away. I have Jean, Kurt, and Ororo trying to track them, but it has been without any luck. While they were trying to track him and his group, we came to Central Park in hopes of assisting you and stopping the violence caused by other less than reputable mutants."

"Weren't much help seeing as that they got a way," Clint grumbled under his breath. Everyone ignored him except for Coulson and Cyclops who glared at him.

For a moment I was genuinely surprised Magneto was able to escape the plastic cell, but it made sense and before I could voice my thoughts on the attack at Central Park, Cap voiced them for me, "So it's possible both incidents are connects? Once this Magneto fellow escaped, the attack in Central Park was a diversion to spread the Xmen thin- giving him a better chance at escape."

Everyone thought about this for a moment, "That's entirely possible" Xavier conceded.

"Well shit." Fury growled. "Bottom line is now we got a psycho mutant out on the loose with a bunch of crazy followers and he's bent on killing the entire human race. Well isn't this day turning out to be just peachy." I was almost amused by his sarcasm and annoyance but instead, "Magneto doesn't wants to kill the human population, just rule them." Angel said.

"Wonderful, he's a fucking metal version of Loki, just what I want to deal with." Fury's angry words dripped with sarcasm. "This is now my problem to deal with. Captain, your team is working with the Xmen on this. Help track down Magneto and bring him in- dead or alive. Understood?"

Steve just nodded his head, slightly confused. "Good. Charles, like always it's interesting to see you. Let's agree next time it's over tea or something instead of crazies." Fury quickly shook Xavier's hand and turned to leave calling over his shoulder, "Coulson, Hill, with me."

They left and everyone just stood around for a moment unsure how to proceed.

Steve eventually broke the silence, "Well I guess now we can now offer you any and all assistance in capture this Magneto."

From there, everyone started to hash out plans on how to search for Magneto. Clint and Natasha went to check their sources, while Hank McCoy, Bruce, and I began to bring up my tracking software that I installed after the Loki thing. Xavier, Cyclops, and Steve stood by watching us work. Sometime later after a bunch of introductions Ororo, Jean, and Kurt joined us.

I had JARVIS set the Xmen up with their own suites and most of them took the opportunity to finally clean up and rest because the tracking software would take some time and there was nothing else to be done.

-/-/-

I sat sometime later that night at the bar with a looking through the blueprints of the wiring and circuitry for my flight stabilizers when I realized that not only one, but _two _telepaths were standing behind me, watching me. Without turning around or giving any indication of noticing them, I took a sip of my scotch and said smoothly "I was told it's rude to stare at people." I glanced at them sideways "Did you know that?"

Jean had the decency to blush while Xavier sat in his wheelchair just looking at me. "I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable, I've just never heard of anyone capable of shielding themselves completely from a telepath before. Do you know you do it? Or how you are able to do it?" She inquired before she realized she was being rude again and gave me a sweet apologetic smile.

I gave her a reassuring smile, "I've been called rather intelligent; perhaps that's why?"

"No, that can't be it. A genius mind isn't enough to shield yourself from a telepath, especially a telepath of the Professor's caliber."

"Hmm, then I haven't the faintest, biology and mutants don't interest me much."

This caught her attention. And _still _this whole time Xavier just sat quietly watching me! (Like seriously _weird). _"They aren't your focus, but you have an opinion on the subject."

"I thought you said you couldn't read my thought." I joked, hoping she'd allow the deflect; yet again luck wasn't on my side that day.

"The phrasing of your words gave that away and the fact that _everyone _has an opinion on mutants."

I turned around on my stool to look at them carefully in the eyes; I took another sip of the scotch and collected my thoughts. "My opinion is just that- one person's insignificant opinion on a subject that currently does not affect his life."

"And what if the subject did affect your life? You are currently working with a team of superheroes to help mutants locate another mutant. I'd say your opinion on mutants affects your life right now."

I smiled, she made a good point, "And here I was under the impression, Ms. Grey, that you didn't attend law school." She just stood there expectantly.

"You want to know my opinion on mutants. In what context?"

"In general."

"In general? That's rather vague and difficult to state; it's such a complicated subject."

"Then simplify it, you are a genius after all." She smiled wickedly.

"That I am." I chuckled "I suppose, I'm rather here nor there on the subject of mutants. There appear to be good ones and bad ones alike. I am a scientist Ms. Grey, I like facts and the facts are genetics altered their DNA- your DNA- just as Darwin theorized chimpanzee DNA was altered during evolution. And also like chimps not all of them evolved. But most importantly, this evolution took thousands and thousands of years to occur and take effect on life. This X-gene mutation has only been known of for decades at most. My opinion Ms. Grey is that there are not enough facts or data for me to make a solid conclusion."

"So you're saying that those with the X-gene are superior."

"If that is what you believed I said then so be it, that's _your _opinion." (See that- I can be tactful and a pain in the ass at the same time!)

She searched me for a moment, I felt exposed and uncomfortable. "No, I suppose you don't believe we are superior. I am sorry for being so rude and pushy Mr. Stark. If you will excuse me, I think I shall retire for the night. Professor." She indicated both of us with a wave and left hastily. I had the feeling she felt bad for being so harsh.

I turned back to my drink and forgetting Xavier was there until he spoke, "That's a unique viewpoint Mr. Stark."

"Unique comes with being me, and my name is Antonio. You should know this."

He smiled as he rolled himself over to look out the huge floor to ceiling windows. I watched him as he looked out over the City. I always enjoyed looking out over a city at night. My father used to tell me that was proof that there was more life then death; that gave him strength to keep going, I guess that's a trait I shared with him. I still like to look out over the City at night when I feel that I need to.

"Yes, I suppose being Tony Stark makes you very unique." He finally said, I had lost interest in my blueprints long ago and instead found it interesting to scrutinize him instead. "You know after meeting you today, I agree with what all the reporters say about you."

I chuckled, "they say a lot of things about me; about my drinking, my superhero-ing, the number of women I've slept with, my tech. You might want to be more specific."

"That you are an enigma."

I laughed at that because what else could I do; I've never had a good response for that statement. "I'm a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"And a great mystery to the world."

"And what makes you say that?"

"I've read about you over the years. You live in tomorrow but you have an opinion on everything today. So you speak of today, create the tomorrow, but you have no yesterday."

"Yesterday I had coffee for breakfast and Cap made waffles."

Xavier ignored my comment, "You're opinion on mutants fascinates me. Would you like to know why?"

"Not particularly, no." I could see his smile in the reflection of the glass window.

"Erik- Magneto- believes wholeheartedly that the X-gene makes him and I superior over mankind. He believes that we are the next step in evolution. You make a similar point about evolution."

"First time anyone has ever compared my thinking to a mutant super villain's." I spoke just loudly enough around my glass for him to hear. I saw him smile through his reflection on the window.

"Erik is one of my oldest friends, but he is also one of the most dangerous men alive because he doesn't have boundaries. When we locate him, he will not stop and go quietly, I question if we will be able to stop him because our personal boundaries will limit us."

"I suspect then to stop him you'll have to make an exception to your boundaries."

"Would you? Could you compromise yourself in such a way?"

"I'm Tony Stark."

"Ah yes, the world called you the Merchant of Death, a war profiteer with no morals or a care in the world."

"Sarcasm- didn't know you had it in you Xavier."

"Charles."

"Hmm?"

"My name is Charles." He looked at my reflection in the window and I looked at his.

"Charles it is then." I raised my glass to him and finished its contents. I turned around to reach behind the bar for the bottle.

"Have you ever known any one with the X-gene before myself and my team?" Charles asked as I sipped my glass.

"I read your papers on the X-gene when I was MIT. It was interesting, though I don't like biology or genetics."

"Some of us just want to just live peacefully, other cause trouble and act out."

"I believe that's call life and being a teenager."

"Perhaps, tell me Antonio, do you really believe there is no answer to where those with the X-gene stand in society?"

"I have not placed much thought on this subject so I'd rather decline to answer."

"Now Antonio, though I may not be able to read your mind, I know you are lying when you say you haven't thought about this much. I suspect you knew a mutant or two in your life prior to the Xmen and me. Am I correct?"

"The world is a strange place Charles." He just looked at my reflection.

"I've met a lot of people Charles. I own a multibillion dollar international company; I speak over a dozen languages and every time I visit a new country I go out on the streets to get a feel for it. Japan alone I've met over two thousand people."

He looked at me carefully, I didn't move or squirm under his firm gaze, "You truly are an enigma," he gave me a self-deprecating smile, "But I believe you are a good man to have on my side." He wheeled away from the windows and towards the elevator.

As he went, I could resist saying, "I'm don't taking sides, not my fight."

-/-/-

It took almost a week to locate Magneto and his cronies. And during that whole week the Xmen stayed at the Tower. They weren't horrible company; Hank enjoyed working in the labs with Bruce (and me on occasion). Everyone seemed to enjoy the gym and everything else in the Tower. Most of all they enjoyed the movie room where it seemed everyone met up in for dinner every night. It didn't take long for everyone to get comfortable with the addition of so many housemates which was weirdly not surprising. The only down side was that every time I trudged into the kitchen dead to the world in the morning I felt Jean and Charles watch me over their newspapers.

During that week there was only one other villainous plot that had to be stopped and it was by Doom, so we ignored the call and made the Fantastic Four take it.

-/-/-

Everyone was sitting in the massive movie room, when JARVIS spoke up, 'Sir, I believe the tracking software has locate the mutant Magneto."

I sat there with a slice of pepperoni pizza up to my mouth- and queue everyone in the room turning to look at me! "Bring up the data J." I said as I stood up and put my pizza down on the end table. The huge television screen came to life showing camera with live feeds and photo analyses. Everyone watched and looked at the analysis.

"Live camera feeds in Ontario conclude a 96% match to the known photographs of Magneto."

"How recent were these taken?" Natasha questioned.

"Less than two hours Agent Romanov." JARVIS replied.

"Alright everyone suit up." Steve said as he got up to move.

Luckily I was able to permanently fix my stabilizer problem during the week so the suit and I were ready to go in less than five minutes. We all made our way to the Quinjets, Steve contacting SHIELD as we took off.

"Sir, we've located Magneto as of two hours ago in Ontario. We are going to cite now."

Fury replied, "I was about to contact you, Magneto and other mutants are attacking a warehouse district located outside of Ontario."

Hearing this over the comm, Natasha and Clint redirected the course so we were heading towards that warehouse area.

As we got closer, Jean and Charles extended their minds to see what was happening with Magneto's attack. "There are a lot of them. I can see at least two dozen and the entire area is in ruins and burning." Jean said.

"Do we have a map of this area; I can locate Erik on it." Charles asked and Bruce handed him a with an aerial view of the warehouses.

"There, Erik and about six others are in this warehouse, here." Charles said as he pointed to a specific warehouse- labeled as 'Warehouse IV.'

Clint and Natasha landed the Quinjet and everyone quickly made their way off it. I was about to fly off "Tony." Bruce called. I only turned to look at him not raising my faceplate.

"The suit's metal. Magneto…"

I interrupted him before he could finish, "He won't be able to touch me." Bruce looked at me with a concerned eyebrow.

"Had a whole week to make the suit Magneto and mutant-proof. Tested it and everything." I smiled though he couldn't see it through the helmet. He didn't look convinced but nodded anyway and I flew off.

By the time I reached the heaviest fighting was already underway. Mutants were fighting viciously against the Xmen and the Avengers were fighting strong. I joined in blasting as many as I could with my repulsors and took on the mutants who could fly. I heard Fury say over the comms that SHIELD back-up was en-route. All the while we fought Bruce and Charles gave up to date information on movements and statuses.

Everything was going relatively well until the comms went quiet. Apparently as we were fighting our way toward Magneto in Warehouse IV, he and a few of his cronies were making their way toward Bruce and Charles in the Quinjet. Jean was the first o know this because she was able to telepathically contact Charles, "Guy we have a problem. Magneto is with the Professor and Dr. Banner on the jet."

"What!?" Captain America and Cyclops said at the same time over the comms.

"Someone needs to get over there." Captain America stated.

"Everyone is fighting and no one is anywhere near the Quinjet. " Jean replied slightly worried.

Without thinking (my sciencebro was in trouble- of course I was going to rush and save his green ass!) I stopped fighting and flew straight back towards the Quinjet, "I'm on my way now ETA less than ten seconds." I flew, blasting anything that got in my way as I went.

As I got closer to the landing site, I saw Magneto by himself standing in front of Charles and Bruce. Bruce was still Bruce, no sign of green. I thought that was kind of disturbing since I expected the Big Guy to make an appearance right then. I muted my comm, so no one could hear me and landed in front of Charles and Bruce. Here I stood face to face less than four meters away from the big bad mutant, who Charles was worried we couldn't beat.

I raised my hand repulsers and said calmly "Give up."

Magneto simply smiled. "Iron Man- not the best choice to come to fight me."

I shot repulse, aiming for his chest, he blocked it by creating a force field.

He retaliated by trying to crumpling my gauntlet with his ability, but only succeeded in slightly denting them (Ha, see I was not stupid enough to go up against him just with a _metal _suit!)

'What are you trying to accomplish here!?" I asked as I dodge flying pipes, aimed for my head.

"We are superior- humans must accept this truth, I will make them accept us!"

"Making them fear mutants won't make them accept you; it never will." Between repulser blasts and dodging flying stuff that was aiming to kill me, I noticed that Charles and Bruce stayed where they were standing- watching as I fought.

"So you say! Look around you Antonio, mutants are superior- we will be dominant! Stop fighting this and accept the truth!" Magneto said over the noise of the battle going on around us.

I kept trying to hit him, I managed to catch him once in the leg, but he got lucky and I was hit in the back of the head full force with a steal beam. It slammed me to the ground and before I could get up Magneto dropped a BobCat Lift on me. And here's where things got fuzzy for me; apparently I took a strong enough blow that it knocked out JARVIS and the arc reactor at once. Next thing I knew I felt the suit shut down and it being ripped off me. It was painful as all hell but I paying attention because I was too preoccupied thinking about the shrapnel slowly making its way into my heart.

For a moment I looked over at Bruce, he looked ready to explode, but not green- thank god not green- not yet.

Charles yelled across, "Erik! Stop!"

"This needs to end. Antonio here needs to accept he has lost. Charles, _you _need to accept we are superior! We cannot live in the shadows!"

Magneto came up to stand over me, he pressed his boot over my now dead arc reactor; my suit was strewn around me in pieces. I could only focus on two things: the building pressure around my heart that was making it difficult to breathe and Bruce as I tried to keep him from Hulking from his adrenaline pumping.

-/-/-

OK! And here I am, gone through basically everything that's lead up to me currently being killed by the man that calls himself Magneto. And here's what I'm thinking- there's no happy ending here. See I knew it would end like this- me vs. him- just I didn't think it actually _would, _or maybe I just hoped it wouldn't. Oh well too late now, I guess…

-/-/-

I can feel Magneto trying to push the shrapnel further into my heart, but I resisted as much as I could.

"Just admit it, we are superior to man; and I will stop."

I glare at him, though I'm finding it harder and harder to focus on his voice.

"You want me to kill, for what? What will your death prove, hmm? Nothing, you will be dead and no one will know the true reason why I killed the great Tony Stark, Iron Man."

I look back at him and stare into his eyes, I really can't afford to but I focus more on him, "No, they won't know the true reason, but you will Vater and that's all that matters. In the end, I dying will just prove that I was right and you were wrong."

I don't look but I can _feel _Charles watching us carefully, I think for a second _'bout time you caught up Chuck.'_

"You and I both know your death will only prove you gave up. You are wrong, Charles is wrong. You must accept this- we are superior! We are the next in the evolutionary ladder!"

"Wrong. You always told me you fought because you believe the X-gene made us superior- the next in evolution to rule this world. Well animals ruled until humans came. What separates those two? Opposable thumbs? Nope, chimpanzees got those just like us. Humans are no better than animals! Animals will kill their young. A lion will kill their cub to survive or better itself; just as a father will kill his son! Humans aren't special, they just keep this world going. Tell me what separates us from humans? Hmm? Just on piece of DNA, if we are supposed to be superior- then aren't we supposed to be better then humans. Yet here we are- a father and a son, two mutants, two supposedly _superior _beings, and what are we doing!? The father is killing the son. So yes, _Vater, _I win. Because if you kill me you're proving mutants aren't superior- we are just like the lions and the humans. We don't deserve anything special, because we aren't SUPERIOR!"

Looking him in the eye, I took a shaky breath, and released all my power over the shrapnel in my heart letting Magneto (my Vater) kill me if he chooses. "Kill me and prove me right. You can't win, Vater, you won't win. Mutants aren't superior."

What I forgot was that now that I'm not focusing on my powers, Bruce is now Hulking out. _'Oops, should've kept a firmer control on the iron in his blood- kept his blood from pumping to fast and making Big Green come out to play… Ah well too late now.' _I watch as Bruce starts to hulk out and both Charles Xavier and my vater turn to watch him. And oh! Look at that Cap is standing around watching too!

I take my only chance, using my abilities I manipulate my left hand gauntlet that's lying on the ground behind Magneto. I know that it will shoot if I want it to; I levitate it to the height of Magneto's back and fire.

Its' enough of a blast to knock him unconscious and not enough to leave permanent damage; and more importantly, it was enough of a surprise that he actually get his and falls on top of me unconscious.

I lay on the ground, my chest still on fire, my father's unconscious body sprawled on top of me; and all I can do is try and manipulate as quickly as possible the metals in Bruce's blood- hoping I can slow down his pulse rate and stop him from fully Hulking out!

-/-/-

"Tony." Weird tap feeling on my head.

"Tony." More weird tapping on my head.

"TONY!" At this third time, I finally crack my eyes open. As I look around I realize the tapping is Bruce's hand on my forehead and I'm in a hospital room.

"Why am I in a hospital, I hate hospitals- you know this." I say in a rough dry voice.

"Your arc reactor died while we were capturing Magneto. We barely replaced it before you died permanently." Bruce sounded worried and uneasy.

"So, Magneto's back in prison." I looked at Bruce for confirmation, but he was looking everywhere but at me, and he was fidgeting again. "Speak up Brucie."

"Vater." I barely heard him, he whispered so quietly. I didn't react or answer. Eventually he looked at me uncomfortably, "That's what you called Magneto when he was about to kill you- Vater. It means father in german."

"So it does." Is all I replied, _'ok now this is a little more awkward then I'm used to and I really don't like this.'_

"I mentioned this to Xavier. We came to the same conclusion that you and Magneto…" Bruce trailed off that strain of thought, "Xavier also said it was likely you have similar abilities. And that got me thinking."

I saw where this conversation was going and I was _really _not looking forward to it. "Your first suit- the joint couldn't move by technology alone. Your current suit, when this whole thing started in Central Park, the stabilizers weren't working but you were able fly and fight as if they were working fine. You manipulate the metal in both instances. And then when Magneto came at Xavier and I, I was ready to Hulk out the _whole _time, but for some reason I couldn't. There are metals in everyone's blood- Iron and such- you manipulate the metals to slow my blood pumping rate so I _couldn't _turn green until you wanted me to- didn't you?"

Well I couldn't really deny any of this cause it was all true, "Yes. I'm sorry for taking advantage of you like that, but I needed something and you were the only option I had to stop him from continuing to terrorize innocent people." I don't think Bruce was alright with this but I think he understood where I was coming from.

"So, you're a mutant that can manipulate metal and you are the villain Magneto's son? Anything else do I need to know, that you've forgotten to mention to me and the rest of the team?" I cringed at his tone, but figured I should answer honestly.

"Actually I manipulate magnetism, which is in the metals so…yeah. Magneto is my biological father; he raised me till I was sixteen and left for MIT and to build my own life. My birth given name is Antonio Eisenhardt, which is my father's given last name at birth. I don't use my powers much, I don't like being dependent on anything."

"Why didn't you trust us, trust _me_ with this- this is something important about whom you are."

"I trust you guys with my life. The fact that my genes are slightly different isn't important to me. It changes nothing."

Bruce was quiet for a few moments thinking all this over. "Alright, I don't agree with all this, but I understand. Now I should leave you to rest, let your heart rest." He turned to leave but stopped and turned to me, "You don't actually need the arc reactor because you can control the shrapnel, can't you?"

Got to love Bruce for figuring my little secret out! I smiled, "I can, but constantly remembering to hold the metal shards in place gets tiring real quick, Reactor is just easier."

"Huh." Bruce scratched at his chin and opened the door to leave, calling over his shoulder, "You're getting off easy with me compared to what the rest of the team will do to you!"

-/-/-

Turns out what Bruce said was the biggest understatement ever! Natasha nearly gutted me like a fish with a PLASTIC knife as she interrogated me; she was furious she never noticed I was hiding such a thing. She went ballistic when I let my accent slip for split second (stupid w's that sound like v's!). Clint spent nearly a week throwing everything he could find at me pissed I always made him get up and find the remote when I easily could've levitated it. Steve gave me a ridiculously long lecture about honesty and trust and shit. Then he gave me his Captain America puppy eyes and asked about the stories I was told about him growing up. I told him about when he came and liberated some concentration camps- how much people loved him for freeing them; the Steve went all sappy and sweet on me and forgave me. Thor surprisingly seemed pretty alright with the whole thing. And when they told Pepper she said she already knew- apparently I wasn't very stealthy because she had caught me many times in the labs using my abilities but never said anything to me (See this is why I love my Pepper!)

But by far the worst were Fury and Coulson! Coulson was cold and gave me icy glares the entire time he questioned me. Fury on the other hand nearly exploded repeatedly as he yelled and yelled and yelled at me for being a mutant and not "sharing this important information" with SHIELD.

It took everyone about a month to be alright with me again. We all eventually went back to what we considered normal back at the Tower. I even began to use my abilities more around the Tower and though the team wouldn't admit it, I could tell they liked the fact that no one had to ever reach for the remote now!

-/-/-

"Sir, Professor Xavier is requesting access to the Avengers' floors and specifically your lab." JARVIS spoke up as I tinker with an engine one day about six weeks after the whole thing in Ontario happened.

"Let him up to the penthouse lounge, I'll be there in a moment." I wiped the grease and oil from my hands on a rag, let out a long sigh and headed up to see Xavier.

I walked into the lounge to see Charles looking out over the New York skyline, "I never did understand why Erik called you Magnon, you know."

"A magnon in a randomly excited spinning structure of an electron in a crystal lattice, It was an inside joke between us that described how I thought- how I still think actually." I said as I made my way over to the bar.

Charles, turned to look at me and smiled, "Ah, I see now. That makes sense. He sends his regards by the way."

"Visiting him? Able to play chess? He always told me how much he missed playing against you."

"Yes, we play a few games." Charles wheeled himself closer to the bar, "He isn't angry that you beat him, you know. I believe he is actually proud."

"I know."

"Was that really you're opinion about us?"

"That we are no better than mankind and the wildlife? Yes."

"But in the end he didn't kill you; surely he would say that proved him right and not you."

I took a sip from my glass and looked carefully at Charles, "He would have though, proving me right. I just had a few more tricks up my sleeves then he did."

"He knew it was you the whole time." Charles stated.

"Growing up I always told him I wanted to work with my hands."

"I asked him once about you, he said you were doing well and liked to work with your hands," something clicked in Charles mind, "The article in Time magazine?"

"My version of calling home after years of being away and saying, 'hi dad I'm doing alright'."

"You seem to be doing well for yourself."

"I am."

"And your team, they are accepting of who you are?"

"My mutant genes don't make me who I am. It never has. I am who I am and yes I am happy. Bruce and the rest of them, I think, will be alright and accept that I wasn't completely forth coming about my life." I gave a sad little smile at those words.

"I still find it amusing that I didn't realize who you were when my Xmen and I first came to the Tower."

"You kept watching me; to be honest it was disconcerting and I thought you recognized me."

"No, I didn't. The fact that I couldn't read your mind did make me think of Magnon- the younger you- but I never thought you would become, well, all this. Forgive me for that. Erik told me once that I wouldn't recognize you even if you were standing right in front of me and introduced yourself!"

I outright laughed at that, "Yeah. Oh well no harm, no foul."

"You're stronger than him, aren't you?"

"I am more capable, maybe. I've never exercised my abilities as much as Vater has."

"Could you stop him if it was just you and him, only your abilities standing between the two of you?"

I looked carefully at him over the rim of my glass _'I don't like that idea.' _"I wouldn't know, nor do I plan on figuring that out."

Charles seemed to understand my position on this and moved past it, "If you would ever like to practice your abilities, you are more than welcome to visit the school."

"Still trying to get me to visit? Thank you but I prefer few people knowing about me. I have the exact same abilities as my vater and people might become suspicious."

"I see, well I understand, but the offer will always stand."

"Thanks." I smiled; both of us knew I would never visit. "Did you just come here to check up on me?"

"The last time I saw you, you were at Erik's side and you were perhaps fifteen? I always wondered what happened to make you leave, but I figured it out on my own- the lions and men- correct? So, now I realize I came here on behalf of Erik." I raised my eyebrow in expectation and finished my drink.

"I always knew you two were close and he cared deeply for you. Now that I realize it was a father's love… I know it is not my place, but visit him. I may not be able to see either of your thoughts, but I know both of you miss each other. He is staying up in northern New York State, I left the prison's information on the coffee table."

"The last time we were civil to each other was the day I graduated from MIT, we agreed that since we could only disagree we would stay away from each other. Neutrality was our only option and we took it because we did care. I do not think it would be wise to see him."

Charles looked at me for a long moment, scrutinizing me, "Perhaps not wise, but you could both do with someone familiar and comfortable to catch up with. I think he would enjoy seeing you and I think you would enjoy spending time with him as well. Now if you excuse me, I have a meeting with Director Fury in a half hour and I don't wish to be late." Charles said and he started to wheel towards the elevator.

"I'll think about it. Take care Chuck." I flashed him a real grin.

As he got into the elevator, he smiled kindly, "I will see you again soon Magnon."

-/-/-

I picked up the business card with the prison's information on it. _'To visit or not to visit- that is the question. It'd end badly guaranteed. Walking into a plastic cell with a chest full of metal, he probably wouldn't kill me though… Oh what the hell I'm an idiot, I'll go.' _

I still haven't visited the prison. Charles came by almost a week ago now. I will though, he's my dad. I look up to him and I know he cares for me. Guess I can't let world views, opinions on mutant superiority, or the fact he was going to kill me get in the way of some long overdue father son bonding time.

It'll end badly, I know, I'll see it coming but I'll still be surprised when it does. In the words of Pepper I'm the dumbest genius she's ever met. And in the words of dad: I think about too much and nothing enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ok part 2… its left open enough at the end that if I get a request I could do an actual show down. Though I honestly like how it ends here… Anyway whatever, here you go! **

**WARNING: cursing. **

Seriously, I stood in front of that freaking cell-block door entrance for like a good forty-five minutes! Honestly, this should not have been that hard, that stupid kid's Christmas special 'put one foot in front of the other' right? WRONG! No way in hell it was that easy. I knew this was going to be awkward and uncomfortable and I _knew _it would end badly; but I when I left the Tower this morning, I knew all this. This was something I had to do on my own, hence why I had like twenty missed calls from Pepper; though I know she'd understand once I got back home.

-/-/-

"Mr. Stark?"

I came back out of my thoughts to a huge security guard staring at me expectantly, "Mr. Stark, the Professor will be coming out in a moment and then you will be able to visit with the inmate."

"Thank you." Was all I was able to say with a jerky nod. I shifted the package under my arm as I tried really hard _not _to think about my upcoming conversation with my dad.

I stood there another ten minutes staring at the metal doors that would take me into a carefully constructed plastic cell.

I thought it was kind of amusing that these high security guys were letting me, a guy with a chest full of metal, in to visit a man who could manipulate the magnetism of the metal. This I apparently mused aloud because the guard that was standing next to me turned and said, "We were told to let you in from higher ups."

"SHIELD?"

"Above my pay grade to know who gave my boss the ok for you."

I smiled at that, though the smile was mostly from nerves, "Fair enough."

We both turned, when we heard the distinct _whoosh _of a door, to see Professor Xavier be wheeled out in a plastic wheelchair by another guard.

At the sight of me he smiled and I could see a twinkle in his eyes. "I wasn't certain you would come."

"That makes two of us," I flashed him a dazzling press smile. Ignoring that he let his eyes roam over me and they stopped at the brown paper wrapped package under my arm. "Care package?"

"More of a 'keeping from dying of boredom package' but sure go with whatever you want to call it."

"He'll enjoy seeing you." Charles said as he began to make his way outside.

'_Enjoy seeing me? Yeah until one of us opens our mouths.' _I think sarcastically as the guard directs me through the doors into an outer-cell. There's a long narrow pathway that leads to a clear plastic room suspended in the middle of this huge outer-cell. I look at the man sitting at the table in the middle of the plastic inner-cell, "He can't see you, like one-way glass, but plastic." The guard mentions as he lead my down the small path. _'Doesn't matter, he knows I'm here. Just like I know he's here… Creepy magnetic field feelings.'_

The door to the inner-cell opens with a _shwoosh _and the guard steps out of the way so I could look into the room. He didn't look at me right away- _no surprise there_.

I stepped into the room and felt the door close behind me; I made my way over to the table and put the package I Had on the table and took off my suit jacket.

The whole room was stark white (ha! _Stark _white- amusingly stupid) and my dark grey suit jacket really contrasted, but the color change was needed in my opinion. There was a cot against the one wall and the table we were currently sitting at with two chairs across from each other. I spun the chair around so I could straddle it and rest my arms across the back of the chair.

We sat there silently for a couple minutes looking each other over. As far as I could tell he looked well, hair was whiter than last I saw him but still thick and his eyes were just as sharp as they always were. I could feel the energy and power radiating from him. (One thing I've noticed is that the longer I go without using my ability the more I feel around me- like an itch; figured he was feeling the same because I could _feel _all the static tension in the air.) As he looked me over, after I finished my assessment of him, I couldn't help but wonder what he saw while looking at me… I know my eyes looked tired and I think I've lost a little weight (ever since New York my pants keep feeling too loose no matter how many times I get the tailor to alter them!) but otherwise, my hair is still dark (thank god no grey- I'm like thirty-ish for god sake!). We sat there waiting for awkward tension-ridden civil conversation to begin; _'playing chicken to see who'll say something first- fun and mature.'_

"Charles told me your suit has an anti-mutant force field that protects it." He raised an eyebrow in question at me.

"Did he?"

"Apparently, that seemed to be the reason your SHIELD allowed your metal suit to come anywhere near me."

I smirked but ignored his comment knowing it would lead to us fighting and I wasn't ready to fight yet. "I brought you some things…" I slid the brown paper package towards him.

"A care package?"

"According to Chuck." That got his lips to twitch upwards.

Only he and I called Prof. Xavier-Chuck. It was an inside joke he and I came up with he first introduced me to him when I was five. We could talk about 'Chuck' and no one ever notice it, just like I grew up call Magneto- Vater. It meant father in German, but most people think it was a nickname I gave him, and once Star Wars came out: Vater. Vader. How people never noticed the connections and connect the dot was a constant sense of amusement to us… Still is, I think.

"Yes that would be Chuck."

"Still sounds weird, you calling him Chuck."

"Still sounds weird, you speaking with an American accent."

"Möchten Sie mir, es fallen zu lassen?"

"Ha. No don't drop the accent. I am just not used to it."

I smile slightly and shrug a shoulder, "Nor do I sometimes. Every now and then when I hear an interview, I don't recognize my voice."

"You took the name Stark but kept my Antonio." He said it as a statement and a question (only he could do that with me and actually get an answer).

"The company was doomed to fail; a man with the name Stark leading it made for good publicity. Not crazy about the name though- too many jokes…"

"Yet Antonio stayed."

"I like my name. My vater gave it to me."

I saw the ghost of a smile- a real smile- on his face, "yes he did."

I looked at the package on the table, next to the chess board, then back to him. "Expect me to open it?"

"Expectations mean nothing because I know you want to." I smirked.

He unwrapped the brown paper and opened the cardboard box. Inside the box was a small set to build a small wooded carousel and a dozen books and journals.

"Trying to keep me from becoming bored and escaping?"

"I'm still putting my suit back together." Which translates to _'yes.'_

"Why the carousel?"

"I like to work with my hands, something I picked up from my dad growing up." I said as he inspected the box the kit came in, "the paints are apparently included; I added some extra red and gold paint though."

"Those were my boy's favorite colors."

"He must be smart; they're the best choices." We actually both smiled at this. He put down the carousel kit and took out the four books: three of which were about the science of flight and the fourth was an old German copy of The Hobbit.

He looked carefully at The Hobbit, "This is a very old edition. I used to read this to my boy. He hated magic as much as I do, but loved Gandolf."

-/-/-

There were very few things I took with me when I left for MIT and even few that I've kept since then. There's a piece of fence from Auschwitz, I took when I was nine and my dad took me there to show me the concentration camp- to prove that we had to fight for mutant rights. A few metal utensils I still enjoy manipulating and playing with (makes Dummy laugh and bounce around). Some old MIT apparel; an old college level physics textbook I stole from a library when I was six which my taught me physics from. But the most important and oldest thing I've kept was an almost thirty year old hardcover copy of JRR Tolkein's Hobbit. My dad read me that book and the Lord of the Rings trilogy many times while I was growing up; it was the first book I read when I was four and it's the only thing I've ever kept out of sentimentality.

And now I gave it back to him.

-/-/-

He set down the book and looked at the journals- all science related: physics and engineering.

"I learned in Afghanistan, playing chess against yourself or one other opponent can get dull after a while." I tried to make that sound light, but he saw through it and I could tell it bothered him.

"We never had a chance to speak about that or anything that occurred after you graduated."

'No, we haven't."

"Due to lack of effort taken by both of us; agreed?" I agreed with that.

"I was in Mongolia when I got word Tony Stark was kidnapped. I was tempted to go there, kill the fools that took my son, and then kill my son myself for letting himself get captured… I thought I had taught my son to be careful in battleground areas."

"It was agreed on the night of graduation that you would keep your distance and I would stay out of my father's revolution."

"We did, but… Are you alright now?"

"I've moved on; built the suit and hunted down all the bastards that stole my tech. My partner, Stane, was the only who sent me to that hell; I sent him to hell permanently in return."

He raised his eyebrow; I could tell he was surprised I had the guts to kill a man, but Stane _betrayed _me- I didn't _kill _him per say but I didn't _save _him either.

"After that I became Iron Man."

"Announced it to the world, I saw."

"I had no interest in having _another_ secret to keep to myself; so yes I told the world. And it's worked out pretty well."

"What about Monaco? You could've easily controlled that fool's whips." We both knew that was true, but at the time my chest hurt too much and I couldn't use my abilities to keep the shrapnel in place. It was a vicious cycle; I needed the arc reactor to keep the shrapnel at bay because I was too sick to keep it away with my mutation alone, because the arc reactor was poisoning me.

"I didn't die in the end, so it doesn't matter." I cut him off that train of thought before I had to admit to him I nearly died.

"The papers said you had a girlfriend after the Expo, as I recall…"

"Yes, she was my PA- now my CEO. Virginia Potts; I call her Pepper."

"Do you love her?"

"She matters to me." Yes I loved her, but I wasn't sure if I should admit that to the man who was willing to kill me.

"Don't let her go if you do." He said sagely to me, then changed the subject again _'just like always, neither of us could answer anything important directly; and we change the subject too soon.' _

"And New York, you went through a wormhole." I inhaled sharply, I tried to cover it with a cough, but it didn't matter he saw it, "I was here at the time; Charles told me about the battle, all the destruction and 'Iron Man's brave selfless actions' as he called them."

"It was a nuke and someone had to stop it."

"Most don't even know your sacrifice; it still bothers you."

"I'm Tony Stark, I'm a superhero." I tried to deflect but I knew he saw past that.

"My boy used to get terrible nightmares; once after the UN tried to attack and arrest myself and our small group of mutants, he woke up almost every night for a month hearing guns ring out and seeing bodies fall around him."

"He got over them."

"Yes, but he was never alone."

"Insinuating that I am?"

"You are thinner. And you look tired."

"It is not of your concern, but I am fine thanks for asking. I've been fine alone for years."

"And whose fault is that? You abandoned your family and pretended who you are never existed." He said bitterly. I realized at that moment, our polite conversation was over. _'too bad, it was nice just chatting like we were normal people.'_

"I never abandoned anyone! You gave the ultimatum! You were the one that couldn't look past a difference in opinion! You gave the ultimatum and when I stood my ground- _as you taught me to!_- you walked away! You said if I ever got in your way, I would be dead! What type of fucking _father _says something like that!?"

"I thought I raised you better than to be foolish! I showed you the world, I thought you understood and saw what this world was! We need to fight for our rights!"

"No you were terrorizing people, who had done nothing to you!"

"I raised you to understand! And you throw it back in my face saying we are nothing more than they are?"

"_Wrong. _You raised me to study my surroundings, to analyze all the data available and _then _make an informed decision and create an opinion of my own! Your actions proved mutants are NO better than humans or animals! We kill each other like they do. You were going to kill me and if it came to it I would kill you! Animals kill each other, humans kill each other, and mutants kill each other. We all live here and none of us are better than the others! None of us are superior!"

"We are the next in the line of evolution. Animals ruled the world until humans. Now _we _will! It's only a logical progression. Humans realize we are a danger, they fear natural evolution and fight it- they fight us."

"You kill innocent people."

"They kill us, they imprison us, and they fear us. I kill them before they can kill us. We fight for our freedom, our rights; we are superior. They need to accept that."

"We aren't better than they are! You are such a brilliant man, _how _can you not see this!? What you are doing, how you are going about this is wrong! Everything you are doing is proving me right!"

By now we were both yelling and you could feel the tension in the air. We were ready to bite each other's heads off.

"You are still a blind fool." He said quietly standing up and shaking his head.

"No, you are just being obstinant!" As I yelled this I shot to my feet and felt my chest clench. _'The HELL are you doing!' _ Thought as I tried to not show any pain on my face.

"Let go."

"Mutants are superior; together, right now we could leave this place and finish this war. We could gain freedom for _every _mutant across the globe. Do you truly believe we don't deserve freedom?"

"Everyone deserves freedom, but freedom gained by forcing it on others _isn't _freedom. It's wrong. Now. Let. Go." I glared at him. We stood silently facing stonily at one another, eventually I felt the pressure on my chest lessen just a little. I seized the chance and made a force field around the shrapnel- effectively keeping him away from touching it. Up until then, I had left my chest open as a sign of neutrality and good faith- apparently that no longer applied or meant anything to me.

We stood there, both threateningly silent when we heard to _shwoosh _of the door, neither of us turned to the guard at the door, "Mr. Stark, time is up."

I ran my hand once through my hair and picked up my jacket. I put it on, turned the chair back around, pushed it in and turned to smiling my dazzling press smile at the guard. I walked to the door; I looked over my shoulder back towards him. He had sat on the cot, "Enjoy Tolkien." I said coldly and I walked out with the guard following me.

-/-/-

I walked into my Tower still pissed as hell. Pepper caught me in the lobby and proceeded to direct me icily up to my office. We got to my office and she proceeded to yell at me once she closed my door. I sat at my desk and let her berate me as she paced back and forth for a good ten minutes. I sat swiveling my chair, ignoring her; my thoughts were focused on either getting a drink or going to the gym and punching the shit out of everything. I was _not _in the mood to listen to how much trouble I caused. Yep, I go from being chewed out by my father about my beliefs and how _wrong_ I am to getting chewed out by my best friend and PA for my work habits. I stopped swiveling the chair when she slammed her hands on my desk and yelled "Why the _hell _did you drop off the radar without giving me any WARNING!?"

'_That's it! Fuck it! I'm done with this.' _I thought as I slowly got up from my seat. Without saying a word to her I got up and made my way to the door, but before I walked out I said just loud enough for her to hear, "I was returning Tolkien."

To anyone other than Pepper, that would've made no sense, but Pepper knew I had an old beat-up copy of the Hobbit that I kept in top left hand draw in my office. She had found me at least a hundred times over the years paging through it as I faced my floor-to-ceiling office windows. She knew what that book meant to me.

-/-/-

Two years after she started as my PA…

"_Mr. Stark? I have those contracts with the RAF for you." She walked into my office; I didn't notice her at first because I was so engrossed in reading. She walked around my desk and stood over me as I sat in my desk chair, facing the city skyline. The sun was just setting and I was ready to go home, it was the first time that day I noticed what day it was- October 7th. I knew I had a few minutes before Pepper would get back with those blasted contracts so I slipped out the old copy of The Hobbit I had read at least a hundred times since I was really young. The book was a worn leather-bound copy with (once) gold inlaid letters, written in German. The pages were yellow and stained, but I always enjoyed reading them and running my fingers across the pages. I guess I got so focused on the book I lost track of time and the next thing I knew there was a Pepper Potts standing over me._

"_Oh, there you are Miss. Potts." She looked over at the old book. She wanted to ask what it was- I _knew _she did. "You have the contracts?"_

"_Yes." She placed them on my desk and I swung my chair around to face the desk. I placed the book on the desk to the left of the contracts and smirked when I caught her trying to read the cover- she couldn't- it was in German and the letters were so worn they were practically invisible._

_I finished the contracts and she left the file them. She came back moments later as I was putting my suit jacket back on and picking up my book to place in my jacket pocket._

"_Tolkien." I said, fixing my jacket once more._

"_I'm sorry?"_

"_The book you caught me reading. It was Tolkien's Hobbit. My dad used to read this copy to me; it was the first book I ever read." I saw her eyebrow quirk and her jaw slacken for a second _(it was the first time I had ever mentioned I had family).

"_Oh, I didn't recognize the title, but I've read all of Tolkien's stories."_

"_I would presume you wouldn't." She looked at me, "It's a German edition. You don't speak German."_

"_Oh. I didn't realize you could read German." I smiled at that _(to this day no one notices my tendencies to curse in German and my non-coherent babblings are often with a German accent) _of course she wouldn't, no one ever thought I would bother to read _anything_ let alone in another language. _

"_It was my primary language once. Now it's purely for sentimental moments."_

"_Tony Stark sentimental? I need to call a press conference and announce that to the world."_

"_They wouldn't believe you, but yes."_

_We started toward the door, she followed right behind me, I wasn't sure if she meant to ask it aloud or not but "What's the special occasion?"_

_I froze for a second, "October 7__th__." I looked over my shoulder, but there was only confusion on her face, "there was a revolt at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp on October 7__th__, 1944." I said nonchalantly with a shrug as I walked into the elevator._

Years later after the whole Magneto fight in Ontario, she made the connection when she saw me paging through Tolkien again.

"Your dad's book."

I raised the book in the air and said, "First book he was able to get his hands on after he escaped that day; he loved the story. 'Course we both hate magic, so we always found that entertaining."

-/-/-

I had kept it all these years, now I gave it back to him and I wasn't sure if it was as an olive branch between us or me subconsciously tell him not to give up…? Yet another thing that was bothering me.

I walked out of the office and Pepper didn't follow me.

I bypassed my floor and went straight to the gym-still in my dark grey suit and tie. As I walked towards the punching bags, I ripped off my jacket (throwing it god knows where), yanked my tie and cuff links off. I rolled up my sleeves and started punching the _crap _out of the nearest punching bag.

I kept punching until I was exhausted and my hands were numb. I stopped to catch my breath and realized my dress shirt was soaked through with sweat and all my knuckles were dripping blood onto the floor.

After a few minutes of catching my breath I stood straight and turned only to see Steve staring at me frozen. He wore grey sweatpants and white tshirt, his hair was mussed and his hands were wrapped. He sat on the bench next to the boxing ring just watching me. _'Yup. Fucking tired of people watching me.' _I glared at him, "What!? Never seen a guy punch a punching bag before!?" I yelled and flung my hands in the air, droplets of blood flew everywhere (some landed on the floor and some landed on my shirt).

My yelling seemed to snap him out of his daze staring and he quickly hopped up and made his way over to me. Before I could do anything, he was grabbing my hands and carefully looking them over. He finally looked up at me, my shoulders were rising and falling with my heavy breathing, "We need to clean and bandage you knuckles." I was honestly too stunned to respond or push away from him, so he was able to drag me over to the first aid station that was located right next to the rock wall in the gym.

"Sit." He said as he opened the cabinets to get the first aid kit.

I sat on the bench and stared down at my knuckles, I saw the blood and knew they were supposed to hurt when I bent them, but I couldn't feel anything.

I didn't notice he had returned with a small first aid kit until he placed it next to me. I slowly looked up at him as he stood over me. "Can you take off your shirt?"

I nodded sharply and roughly, with deft hands, tore off my sweat-soaked dress shirt. I dropped it on the ground and sighed. He took my right hand in his hands and turned me so he could sit on the bench next to me and still reach both my hands.

I sat there on a slight angle staring emptily at my hands as Steve carefully cleaned the blood from my knuckles. I was just starting to let my mind calm when he decided to start to chat, "Lions and men, you said; I said they were different and you said they were the same." I didn't look at him but I knew he was staring at me because he had stopped cleaning my knuckles. "I didn't understand how a 'genius' like you couldn't tell the difference between giant cats and you and me. I've been thinking a lot about that lately…" He trailed off and resumed his work on my knuckles. I looked up from my knuckles to watch him concentrate on cleaning my hands.

"I went to visit him today." I said hoarsely, though I'd deny it later. Steve just kept on working on my hands; he was waiting for me to continue (the bastard).

"We were once close, close enough to be willing to sacrifice our lives for one another. When I was young, I believed it would always be him and I against human governments and the Xmen. I grew up and learned that we were in the wrong. I figured out that lions and men aren't different. But to him, men are superior and are destined to rule over the lions; so mutants are superior to men so mutants must rule men. I can't understand how he can't see we're all the same and he can't understand how I _can _see this."

"Lions and men, I now see what you meant. It makes sense in an odd way. I'm sorry you've lost each other."

"Me too." I whispered as Steve began to wrap my knuckles in gauze.

"What if he escapes again?"

"Then I'll help track him down and arrest him."

"And if he wouldn't surrender without a fight?"

"Oh, I know he would never surrender." I smiled a little.

"Then?"

"Then what Cap?" I scowled.

"If it came down to a fight between you and him; could you defeat him?"

"He's my father, Steve; are you asking me if it came down to it could I kill that raised me?"

"I would hope you could think of a way out of that, but yes."

"He is considered one of the strongest, smartest mutants in history. The world doesn't know of any mutant better or more in control of their abilities than him. We hate each other; we try to be civil but it never works out. We fight all the time; we both have short tempers and long memories."

"Tony." Steve interrupted, "He has killed countless innocents for his 'cause' and he won't stop, we- I- need to know if you can."

"Neither of us would quit until the other was dead; if we ever decided to give in and actually fight this out."

"And would you be the body or the man standing over the body. Are you stronger than him- your powers?" Steve asked carefully as he finished wrapping my knuckles.

"He has more practice than me and taught me everything I know; he also never holds back."

(I thought back to Ontario when I was able to keep him out of my chest all the while controlling the Hulk's rage. And when I was visiting him, he grabbed hold of the shrapnel in my chest, and I felt that I could rip the grip he had on me like tissue paper. I thought back to MIT when we fought and I lost my temper and caused every building's steel support beams in a five mile radius to buckle for a moment before I straightened them again and walked away from Vater.) I took a long slow breath; I looked Cap in the eye fisting my hands, which made my knuckles start to bleed again.

"But in the end, I have no limitations. Yes Steve- I could destroy him, permanently, if I so wished." He studied me carefully for a long moment, and then slowly shook his head, "You won't though; you could but you'd refuse. You would sacrifice yourself in hopes he'd regret his actions and surrender."

"I would end him, Steve, but I don't _ever _want it to come to that."


End file.
